


Harbingers and the Incoming Thunderstorms

by Daiya_Darko



Series: Bruce Banner is Not a Shy and Passive Man [3]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Domestic Violence, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, M/M, Science Boyfriends, hulkwidow - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 10:34:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/685958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daiya_Darko/pseuds/Daiya_Darko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce is trying to make Natasha jealous and all it's doing is making her worried -- for Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Harbingers and the Incoming Thunderstorms

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as a standalone fic but it should at least be read after "About Today."

Natasha watches, because that’s what she does – she observes. She notices things others don’t, and not in the sense that there are small details, but in the sense that a person is uncomfortable even if they seem relaxed. She knows how to read that, especially after being with Bruce for a couple of months.

She knows all his emotions, knows how to read him like large print children’s book.

Bruce is a very complicated man, but she has him figured out.

Contrary to popular belief, he is not the shy and passive man people often mistake him for. She has heard things uttered under his breath and they sent shivers up her spine. The words were not obscene or threatening, but it was the simple tone, the connotations of his words.

_“I will never let that happen.”_

_“He’s going to learn one day.”_

_“Patience.”_

Even though he dumped her, Natasha still cares for him to some degree, which makes all his flaunting of his relationship with Tony all the more painful. Bruce would casually rub the back of Tony’s neck while sitting on the couch, and Tony would lean into the touch with a contented smile. Tony would bring him snacks and drinks, and Bruce would take them, kissing the back of Tony’s hand when doing so.

Natasha knows when she’s being played with, and she can ignore it.

What she can’t ignore, is the way Bruce plays with Tony.

It was clear Bruce was jealous of Clint during their relationship, but he never acted in a way different from his behavior. For some reason, Natasha was different, and so Bruce began using Tony to get back at her. Natasha paid him no mind, which seemed to anger him, although he never showed it.

That was probably the best and worst thing about their relationship, the way both could read each other when the others couldn’t.

It’s not a problem for Natasha. She knows Bruce will stop if she says something, but then she begins noticing the way Bruce’s gentle touches grow rough with Tony. They no longer hold hands; Bruce’s thick, calloused hands grip Tony’s wrist, and even though Tony is smiling and leaning against Bruce’s shoulder, she can see his chest falling and rising faster. He’s nervous, and that’s a first when it comes to Bruce.

Bruce was never rough with her; now he holds on to Tony, afraid he’d slip away if given the chance.

Natasha thinks, _He probably wants to._

Still, she says nothing. It’s not her business.

She still says nothing when Bruce’s voice drops an octave and raises in volume over a knocked over drink. She’s reading in the living room, but she hears the glass break in the kitchen and the screech of chairs against the floor. Bruce’s voice isn’t quite a yell, but it startles her, and she looks up. She sees the edge of the table and Tony on his knees cleaning the broken glass with his hands, even as blood begins dripping from his palms.

Bruce leans down and whispers something to Tony, who nods quickly and hurries to finish cleaning. Bruce stands and looks behind him, catching Natasha’s eye.

He smiles.

Natasha tries to ignore the two as the days go by, tries to ignore the condescending tone in Bruce’s voice and Tony’s eager acquiescence to Bruce’s demands. She tries to ignore when she sees Tony alone for the first time in a month, and the way his hands shake as he tries to pour a drink.

Finally, she decides to say something.

She goes to Tony’s room the day before he leaves for a business trip for a week, and watches him get dressed and pack silently.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on or do you want to hear what I think?”

Tony jumps and turns around, knocking his suit bag to the floor. He stoops to pick it up, and Natasha does as well, trying to meet his gaze.

“Tony, this is unhealthy.”

“Oh yeah? As unhealthy as you blowing him off, sneaking around, and sleeping in another man’s bed?”

Natasha bites her lip and stands.

“That was different.”

“And so is this. Thanks, Ms. Romanoff, but you can show your way out,” Tony points to the door, just as it opens and Bruce walks in.

He looks at Natasha, then to Tony, and back to Natasha.

“Natasha, how are you?”

Natasha’s expression is unreadable. She knows he will have a hard time deciphering it later.

“I’m doing well Bruce. I just had to ask Tony a question about his business trip.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Tony flinch. Bruce’s usual poker face falters as his eyes dart to Tony and darken.

“Well I hope he’s told you everything you need to know.”

“Oh, he has. Have fun, Tony,” Natasha nods her good bye and leaves. As the door closes behind her, she hears Bruce say, “Business trip? That doesn’t sound like you’re asking for permission, Tony,” and the crack of a fist against a jaw.

Natasha swallows, hesitates, but continues walking.

 _Tony won’t tolerate that,_ she tells herself, but every fiber of her being knows otherwise.

All the signs were there and she never said anything.

She doesn’t watch Tony leave the next morning, because she knows she will see the makeup hidden bruises and cuts. He can always chalk it up to being Iron Man, and she realizes Bruce can get away with hurting Tony because of this. It creates a curdling feeling in her stomach, and she finally says something to Bruce while Tony is away.

Natasha corners him in the kitchen one day as he makes a pot of tea. The situation is similar to the first night they spoke, but this time, Natasha is not afraid, and she makes a show of displaying that.

“Ah, my sweet Tasha. How can I help you, sweetie?” Bruce’s voice is sickeningly sweet and cordial, and it makes Natasha’s stomach turn.

“You can help me by quitting whatever you’re doing with Tony.”

“Oh, so you miss me finally.”

“I miss the old you.”

Bruce looks up from his cup and smiles. “This is the old me, actually. This is who I’ve always been. Maybe you just didn’t stick around long enough to see.”

Natasha approaches him slowly. “I _wanted_ to stay long enough to see who you really are. _You_ left _me_ , remember?”

“Right, and you left me in bed many times.”

“Are you ever going to get over that? I explained – I told you why I had to.”

“Was it because you were afraid of yourself or afraid that you knew what I really am?”

The question makes her pause, so Bruce continues.

“You know, I didn’t want to break up. I really thought I was doing you a favor, but I missed you,” Bruce runs his hand down Natasha’s cheek and tilts her chin up to him.

“I never really wanted Tony. I always wanted you.”

“Well you really showed it.”

Bruce chuckles and sets his tea down. “I have a weird way of showing things.” He leans down and kisses her lightly, and Natasha is too afraid to move. She has seen what Bruce is really like, and so she kisses back, just enough to appease him.

“Natasha, please, let me show you I’m not really like that,” Bruce whispers against her mouth. Natasha’s stomach flips and her heart races, because this is exactly what she wanted, but the opposite of what she came to do. Everything in her body is telling her to run, but instead she lets him set her on the counter and run a hand through her hair. She missed this, missed the way their bodies fit perfectly with one another, and missed the familiarity.

But she knows she’s wrong, and tries to push a hand against Bruce’s chest. He takes her hand it slides it to his crotch, where she can feel his erection growing. She gasps into his parted lips when a hand slides under her shirt to flick at the stiffening nipple resting there.

“Bruce, I’m not going to do this,” she tries to reason, even as his hands work at pulling her shirt up. “I’m not going to do this with you unless you promise to leave Tony alone.”

Bruce growls quietly as he bites down on her neck. “How alone?”

“I want you to break up with him and never touch him again.”

Bruce pulls away and pulls her shirt down. He gives her a hard stare and shakes his head. “No. I’m not breaking two hearts.”

“So you’d rather break mine twice and break his jaw?” Natasha’s words come out more emotional than she anticipated, clipped, but voice wavering. “Bruce, you are a monster, not the Hulk. You don’t have to be – ”

“Don’t say it,” Bruce cautions.

“You don’t have to be like your father!” Natasha spits out. She hops off the counter and begins to walk away, but Bruce grabs her by the wrist to pull her back. Reflexively, she spins around, kicking him in the head. Bruce lets go and stumbles into the counter, clutching his face.

Natasha feels her head go light. It’s the helicarrier all over again.

She runs to her room, even as she hears Bruce’s yelling grow inhuman. Finding her gun, she yells to JARVIS, “Call Fury! Tell him we have an incident involving the Hulk!”

 Natasha pushes up the air vent cover and climbs inside, waiting patiently for help to arrive. She can hear the growls and smashing echoing through the vents, and hopes the Hulk can’t smell her, because right now, she’s very afraid.

The sound of large, destructive footsteps grows closer, and Natasha pulls out her phone to call Clint.

She knows he’s out of state, working for SHIELD, but she hopes this will be one time he answers his phone.

Clint answers on the third ring. “Tasha? I’m kind of busy here.”

“Well it can wait. I may not have much time,” she hisses.

Clint makes a sound on the other end and she can hear a door close. “Okay, what’s wrong?”

“I angered Bruce.”

Clint is silent for a moment before asking, “Where are the others?”

“Tony’s on a business trip, Steve is at SHIELD HQ, and Thor is off planet.”

Clint curses and she can hear shuffling and the sound of running. “Is SHIELD on its way?”

“Yes.”

“I am too. Stay safe.”

Natasha hangs up without another word and scoots further into the vent. She tries to remain as quiet as possible, afraid of making a sound. She holds her breath, waiting for the inevitable sound of crushing metal and screams, but they don’t come. Instead, she hears a quinjet and the sound of gunfire. She knows it’s not real bullets, but many tranquilizer darts filled with powerful sedatives. The Hulk roars in pain, and there’s more crashing, but then there’s one last _boom_ and everything goes quiet.

“Agent Romanoff, can you hear us?” Fury’s voice sounds over the loud speaker. Hesitantly, Natasha climbs down from the vent and looks out the giant hole the Hulk left. The quinjet hovers patiently, waiting for a confirmation.

“I’m okay.”

The jet lands on the roof, and Natasha goes to meet Fury. Before he’s even out the jet, she can tell he’s extremely annoyed.

“Do you want to brief me on what happened, Agent?”

Natasha swallows and stands up straight. “I accidentally upset Banner.”

Fury simply stares at her, waiting for her to continue.

“I insulted him, and when he grabbed me, I kicked him in the face.”

Fury rolls his eye and his shoulders fall. “Now why would you do a thing like that?”

 _It’s now or never, tell him,_ she thinks.

“Dr. Banner and Stark are in an unhealthy relationship, and when I tried to confront Banner about it, he became angry and tried to attack me.”

Natasha squirms under Fury’s judging glare and looks down. She feels silly. She could have handled this more tactfully, and he knows that. Instead, she caused property damage and possibly ruined the team dynamic for good.

“I’m going to let you handle this, Agent Romanoff, because I know you are more than capable of doing so. When Banner wakes up, you give him the choice of getting himself together and leaving Stark alone, or leaving, and we’re not covering his trail from the government anymore.” He turns to head back to the jet and yells over his shoulder, “By the way, Barton’s on his way back. Maybe he can help.”

Natasha shakes as the jet takes off. She hates being around Bruce when he wakes up because of the amount of self-pitying he initially puts out. Right now, she can’t promise she won’t give in and cater to his feelings, but she’s been given a job and she knows Fury is right: she can handle it on her own.

When she reaches where she left Bruce, she sees him sitting up in the rubble, looking down at the ground below.

“I don’t think jumping would be a wise decision right now, Bruce,” she says quietly. When he turns around, she sees the same eyes she saw when he first turned into the Hulk before her. It makes her breath catch, and she has to remind herself that this is now a job.

“I wasn’t thinking about it anyways,” Bruce sighs and stands, brushing himself off. He doesn’t hide his nudity from Natasha, but he still appears shaken and scared.

“I almost hurt you.”

Natasha nods. “Yes, you did.”

“Were you afraid?”

Natasha shakes her head.

Bruce smiles shyly and shrugs. “I’m sorry about that. You were right, you know. I’m behaving a lot like _him_ , and I should know better.”

Natasha nods before catching herself. Bruce is complying way too easily.

“Please, I’ll do whatever it takes to make this up. I’ll leave Tony, I’ll leave the tower, you guys will never hear from me again.”

“Don’t,” Natasha says before she can stop herself, “Don’t leave. You can fix this.”

Bruce shakes his head and begins to walk past her. “It’s best if I just go.”

Natasha grabs his arm, and he stops, looking at her hand on his bicep, but not at her directly.

“I know what you’re doing here, Bruce. I’m not letting you get off that easy. To let you go now would be to absolve you of everything you’ve done.”

Bruce is quiet for a few moments before he says, “I’m tired of you always knowing me better than myself.”

“I’m tired of knowing you that well and cleaning up after your messes. Now you’re going to stay here and figure out what you’re going to do about Tony and me.”

Bruce raises an eyebrow. “You?”

“You’re not getting off just because you didn’t hurt me, physically. You played with Tony just to play with me, and then you really just tried to play with me in order to play with Tony. You need to put your toys away before you can go anywhere, Bruce.”

Bruce chuckles and pulls away. “I love you, Natasha.”

Natasha shakes her head, even as her heart rate increases, excited to finally hear the admission. “I know you did, but you’ve really made a mess of things, worse than anything I ever could have done.”

“Clint’s done worse.”

“Not to someone he claimed to love.”

Bruce nods and walks away.

This time, Natasha lets him.


End file.
